Alcohol the Real Date-Rape Drug, Study Says

From Join Together:

Women who have lost control or consciousness due to excessive drinking have fueled what British researchers have termed the "urban legend" of drinks being spiked with so-called "date-rape" drugs, according to a new study.

The Telegraph reported Oct. 27 that Kent University researchers who studied 200 students found that many blamed their incapacitation on alleged spiking of drinks with drugs like Rohypnol or GHB when, in fact, they had drank to excess. Researchers concluded that many drinkers were in denial about their level of alcohol use and its debilitating effects.

Three-quarters of those surveyed cited drink spiking as a major risk in sexual assault -- far more than saw the risk in being drunk, taking drugs, or walking alone at night. But police say there's no evidence that rape victims are commonly drugged before attacks.

"Young women appear to be displacing their anxieties about the consequences of consuming what is in the bottle on to rumors of what could be put there by someone else," said researcher Adam Burgess. "The reason why fear of drink-spiking has become widespread seems to be a mix of it being more convenient to guard against than the effects of alcohol itself and the fact that such stories are exotic -- like a more adult version of 'stranger danger.'"

"We would be very interested in finding out whether the urban myth of spiking is also the result of parents feeling unable to discuss with their adult daughters how to manage drinking and sex and representing their anxieties about this through discussion of drink spiking risks," added researcher Sarah Moore.

The study was published in the November 2009 issue of the British Journal of Criminology.

Heroin High - Teen Heroin Use and Deaths On the Rise

From CBS News:

A rise in heroin abuse by teenagers across the country has led one high school to issue an ultimatum to parents: Attend a seminar on the dangers of heroin or your child will banned from the prom.

CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod reports more than 1,000 parents showed up to the forum in Smithtown, N.Y., Wednesday night.

. . .

Natalie was one of 46 people to die last year from a heroin overdose in Nassau County, N.Y., a 75 percent increase from the year before. That's a troubling spike being felt nationwide.

Heroin has killed 23 people so far this year in Will county, Ill., compared to 16 last year. The number of heroin deaths in Jefferson County, Ala., has tripled from six in 2007 to 18 this year. And in 2008 there were 119 heroin deaths across Oregon - 71 in Multnomah County alone.

Students for Recovery @ University of Michigan

Thanks Ivana. It's been needed for years.

For many students, moving to Ann Arbor to begin their careers at the University of Michigan is a time of excitement, curiosity and maybe a little bit of fear. But for School of Social Work graduate student Ivana Grahovac, the emotions were different.

As Grahovac prepared to start her time at the University, she was also recovering from a five-year addiction to heroin. Though she had been clean and sober for four-and-a-half years in her hometown of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., she wasn’t sure she could recreate that security in Ann Arbor.

Grahovac said coming to Ann Arbor was a “leap of faith” and that once she arrived, she felt her sobriety constantly threatened.

“I was constantly getting these e-mails about being invited to join people for keggers, drink night specials and pub-crawls,” she said. “There was just a real lack of understanding going on that maybe there are people for whom this would be a very bad choice and possibly cause some serious negative and tragic consequences to occur.”

It was in this environment that Grahovac decided to create Students for Recovery, a group aiming to support and provide provides information for students recovering from addiction. The group also helps students find sober programming as an alternative to the usual Friday night party filled with red Solo cups and alcohol.

Read the rest here.

Alcohol marketing and teen drinking

The finding from a study of the relationship between alcohol advertising and adolescent alcohol use:

Based on the consistency of findings across the studies, the confounders controlled for, the dose response relationships, as well as the theoretical plausibility and experimental findings regarding the impact of media exposure and commercial communications, it can be concluded from the studies reviewed that alcohol marketing increases the likelihood that adolescents will start to use alcohol, and to drink more if they are already using alcohol.

Teen Smoking Linked To Drinking And Drug Use

From a press release on a new study of teen tobacco, alcohol and other drug use:

New research by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers looks at the specific ways parents and peers influence teenagers to smoke, drink and use marijuana in combination. Among their findings: attitudes toward smoking influenced teenagers' use of multiple drugs (smoking, drinking and marijuana), and that this manifested itself differently in boys and girls.

For girls, friends were shown to be central. Ambivalent or permissive attitudes within their social group toward smoking were associated with poly-drug use -- defined as two or more of the following behaviors: smoking, drinking and marijuana use. This wasn't the case with boys, whose poly-drug use was instead predicted by the extent to which they perceived smoking to be prevalent in their larger age group -- not just among their friends.

"If a teenager feels smoking is socially acceptable and widely practiced, they are much more likely not only to smoke, but to also drink and possibly use marijuana," says lead author Dr. Jennifer A. Epstein, assistant professor of public health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior at Weill Cornell Medical College. "While the differences between how boys and girls are influenced by these social factors are subtle, they could help us develop new gender-specific educational tactics for preventing these behaviors."

The study also revealed several factors that were the same for boys and girls. When their friends drank alcohol or smoked or when their parents had permissive or ambivalent attitudes toward drinking, both teenage boys and girls were more likely to report poly-drug use. Other major variables included teenagers' inability to refuse drugs and achieve goals through their own efforts.

"A parent's opinion matters. Moms and dads are critical role models and should let their attitudes against drug use be known. It's also important to keep an eye on their child's social circle, since, especially for girls, it's their friends who are so central to influencing their behavior," says Dr. Epstein. "At the same time, parents can do things that reduce their child's risk for using drugs, such as teaching them to set goals and assert themselves."

Researchers analyzed confidential surveys taken by 2,400 sixth- and seventh-graders in inner-city schools in New York City. Questions dealt with substance use and several psychological factors that previous research suggests may be related to drug use. The majority of the schools serve youths from families with incomes averaged well below the federal poverty level.

The current study is one of the first to look at the relationships between smoking, drinking and marijuana use. The vast majority of research in this area has focused on a single substance in isolation, especially among white middle-class suburban populations. The importance of Dr. Epstein's approach is backed up by evidence suggesting that teenage poly-drug use is a significant risk factor for adult poly-drug use.

One implication of these findings, according to Dr. Epstein, is that "comprehensive prevention programs focusing on multiple gateway drugs (alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana) may prove to be more valuable than programs focusing on a single drug."

Study co-authors included Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, chief of the Public Health Department's Division of Prevention and Health Behavior and professor of psychology in public health and psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Margaret Doyle, formerly of Weill Cornell.

The study appears online in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse. The research was supported by a grant to Dr. Epstein from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to analyze data previously collected under a grant to Dr. Botvin from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Some students in the NCI study received a prevention program called Life Skills Training (LST), while others did not. Dr. Botvin receives income from sales of the LST program. The data used by Dr. Epstein for the current NIDA study were from students who did not receive the LST program.

In 16 states, drug deaths overtake traffic fatals

From the Washington Post:

In 16 states and counting, drugs now kill more people than auto accidents do, the government said Wednesday. 

Experts said the startling shift reflects two opposite trends: Driving is becoming safer, and the legal and illegal use of powerful prescription painkillers is on the rise. 

Read the rest here.